sculpture exhibition

Acquisition

Arts Management Services LLC assisted in the fabrication of this sculpture by Michael Singer and in the subsequent art installation for the first exhibition of this work of art at the Williams College Museum of Art.

Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts added this sculpture to their permanent collection as a gift from one of Michael’s closest friends and Williamss alumnus, Dr. William Fishkind.

About the Sculpture

The sculpture is titled Ritual Series, 1990. It consists of wood, granite, fieldstone, copper, iron, and bronze. It measures 230″ wide x 230″ long x 75″ tall.

The wood has a gorgeous texture created by sand-blasting 2″ thick rough-cut pine, harvested from the woods nearby Michael’s Vermont studio. After sand-blasting, the large and heavy planks were carefully singed to create an ancient look. The wood is not coated and easily bruised so handling needed to be careful and with gloves at all times. Likewise, packing and storage was always done with special care so that no surfaces touch each other or any hard surface.

Field stone was collected from around the artists 100-acre property in the mountains of southern Vermont. Mr. Singer would assemble a group of us from his studio and line us up behind him in a single row. We would then follow him all over his fields like ducklings. He would point to a rock and one of us would pick it up and carry it. Most were too heavy to carry more than one. When we all had one we would load them on his pickup truck and transport them to be cut flat on one end. One or two would be cut in an odd way with slices up the middle.

Art Installation Details

One of the secrets of this artist’s work is the precise degree of vertical plumb and horizontal level. Most good carpenters notice when something is off-level by anywhere from an 1/8″ to 1/4.” Incredibly, Mr. Singer notices pieces that are off-level by 1/32″! This precision creates a subliminal effect of calm and quiet, making the heaviness of stone, metal, and thick wood somehow feel light, floating, contemplative, and even otherworldly. This stunning effect can be felt in many of his works.

The granite and bronze plates were heavy and the long and thick pine planks bulky, needing two to handle and place precisely according to the instructions.

Our team devised an instructional system with carefully marked photographs whereby all of his intricate sculpture such as this can be assembled and disassembled by museum and gallery preparators.

This art installation required two people five days.

These pictures show details of the piece after completing the art installation for it’s first exhibition at the Williams College Museum of Art in 1990, from April 7 through October 21.